The NHS has paid five Birmingham GPs almost £6 million over a three year period, the Sunday Mercury can reveal.

The moneybags medics have been identified in a report by city-based CW Audit Services, which examined GP pay at the Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust (HoB) from 2007 to 2010.

The wealthy doctors were able to boost their salaries thanks to a system which encourages GPs to compete with private companies by selling ‘top-up’ services to the NHS.

There is no suggestion that they have done anything wrong.

Two have also employed their wives to help with their work, with one spouse earning more than £600,000.

The CW Audit Services report claimed the system had no built-in performance measures, cost more while providing poorer quality services, and found that bonuses were handed over too easily without proof of improvement.

The whopping pay packets have also been criticised by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which campaigns against wasteful public spending. “Badly negotiated contracts mean we are paying far more than we should at a time when NHS budgets are tight,” said a spokesman.

The high earners are:

* Dr Shiverdorayi Raghavan, who runs the Heathfield Family Centre in Handsworth and is a partner of the Summerfield Group in Winson Green, topped the list of high-earning HoB GPs, receiving £1,889,960 from 2007 to 2010.

* He is followed by Dr Inderjit Marok, who is also a partner at the Summerfield Group and runs his own practice, the Rotton Park Medical Centre in Ladywood. Between 2007 and 2010 Dr Marok was paid £1,403,926.

His wife – a practice nurse at his Rotton Park surgery – also took home £61,268, which brought the pair’s combined NHS income to £1,465,194.

* Dr Vijay Bathla, who runs the Soho Health Centre GP & Yellow Fever Travel Centre was paid £809,053 during 2007 to 2010. His wife also worked as a practice nurse at the centre and was listed as a co-owner.

She earned £616,473 during the three years, which resulted in them together earning £1,425,526 from the NHS.

The three doctors’ salaries are much higher than that of an average GP in Britain, who is said to earn around £105,000, with many earning less – between £53,000 and £80,000.

The GPs do not have to provide the services themselves, but act more like small businessmen with employees.

Dr Raghavan, aged 61, has got PMS and APMS contracts with HoB for his work at the Summerfield Group, which offers a wide range of healthcare services including asthma and baby clinics, travel immunisations and mental health counselling.

He studied medicine at Southampton University and graduated in the same year as Dr Marok, who is also a partner at the Summerfield Group.

Dr Marok is also a member of HoB’s Professional Executive Committee (PEC), which advises the trust on ways to improve the quality and delivery of health care in their communities.

Dr Bathla’s earnings were boosted through his PMS contracts at the Soho practice, where he and his wife offer services such as removal of moles or lesions, blood tests and an obesity clinic. The CW Audit Services report identified a further two high-earning GPs working for HoB during 2007 and 2010.

Dr Mohamed Walji, who operates the Balsall Heath Health Centre, was paid £856,718 during the period.

And Mukesh Sinha, who runs Church Road Surgery in Aston, took home £825,911 through a PMS contract for diabetes, heart disease and menopause clinics, and child vaccinations.

The PMS contracts were introduced in 1998 and were intended to streamline a bureaucratic system.

The auditors worked out the GPs’ incomes based on what earnings they declare to the Trust so that it can determine the contributions it needs to make to their pensions.

The money goes directly to the GPs.

Of the top five earners, Dr Raghavan’s practice came 16th in a quality review that HoB conducted into its 73 GP surgeries in 2010.

Dr Sinha came 40th, Dr Bathla 51st, Dr Marok 59th and Dr Walji 63rd.

The CW Audit Services report into HoB criticised the Trust’s general handling of the contracts. It found some practices had been given increases in payments but records did not show why.

The top five earners had no Key Performance Indicators, meaning performance could not be accurately measured.

The audit also warned the PMS contracts were poor value for money.

It states: “Whilst PMS contracts are costing on average £20 more per patient, on balance they are providing no additional (and often less) value in terms of the quality of indicators measured.”

The audit’s final criticism was the high profit margins the doctors enjoyed from the cash they received from HoB.

The report stated: “The PCT should follow up this analysis with the GPs in question to seek an explanation of the high level of pensionable earnings declared when compared to their gross practice income.”

TaxPayers’ Alliance Chief Executive Matthew Sinclair (TPA), said: “Doctors are rightly well-paid for their important work but taxpayers will baulk at the idea that poor value contracts are making some GPs millionaires at their expense.”

“Badly negotiated contracts mean we are paying far more than we should at a time when NHS budgets are tight.”

A spokeswoman for Birmingham and Solihull NHS Cluster, which oversees HoB along with three other Trusts, said she would respond on behalf of the GPs after the Sunday Mercury’s attempts to contact them were unsuccessful.

“APMS contracts are negotiated through a robust competitive process in accordance with national guidelines, and are awarded on the basis that they are the best provider for that service.

“APMS offers substantial opportunities for the restructuring of services to enable greater patient choice, improved access and greater responsiveness to the specific needs of the community.

“It enables us to specifically target areas that have historic under-provision of healthcare services, so that we can improve access.

“PMS contracts are national contracts which follow national regulations.

“We monitor both APMS and PMS contracts to ensure that the criteria are being met. Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust’s Professional Executive Committee’s remit was to advise on clinical needs and services.

“This did not include contracting or GP costs. The PEC’s final meeting was held in June 2011.

“We cannot disclose individual GP income as we would be in breach of the Data Protection Act.”